Isaac Ruto: From Ruto critic to key ally

Chama Cha Mashinani (CCM) party leader Isaac Ruto has been a critic of Deputy President William Ruto for years. But they made up in a highly publicised event in Bomet this month. In an interview , the former Bomet governor reveals why they reconciled, his relationship with President Kenyatta, Jubilee’s recently crafted post-election alliance with CCM and the unfolding political scenarios.

Q. What informed your sudden turn to support Deputy President William Ruto after years of misunderstanding?

We disagreed on resource allocation to counties when Dr Ruto was Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council (IBEC) chairman while I headed the Council of Governors. It was nothing personal.

I also did not agree with him on the dissolution of the United Republican Party (URP) to form Jubilee as I felt we were on the right track in an alliance with The National Alliance (TNA).

Dr Ruto’s ideas on creating jobs, fixing the economy, creating a conducive environment for industries to thrive, uniting Kenyans and giving them equal opportunities, providing universal health care resonate with mine.

Q. What is the fate of CCM in the new political arrangement? Will it fold ahead of the General Election in favour of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) – a party fronted by the DP’s allies?

We have not reached that stage. We must realise that the people coalescing around UDA are from different parties, including The Service Party (TSP) fronted by Mwangi Kiunjuri, Omingo Magara’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP), People’s Empowerment Party (PEP) of Gatundu South MP Moses Kuria and CCM. We have agreed to support Dr Ruto as our presidential candidate. The next thing is to concretise our ideologies and strategy, lay out a programme of action and make it clear we are not going into an alliance on the basis of ethnic communities.

Q. In view of the development, what happens to the post-election alliance recently crafted and signed between President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Jubilee party and CCM?

The alliance with Jubilee is on. In fact, almost all the people we are working with are in the government. We must allow the government of the day to work even if our ideologies differ.

We want to give President Kenyatta a conducive environment to work and deliver on his mandate. We should borrow from developed democracies that parties should not divide us. CCM is not in a destructive competition with the Jubilee government.

Q. There were claims attributed to a section of CCM officials, including former Secretary-General Zedekiah Kiprop Bundotich, that the decision to support the DP was not subjected to a consultative party process, that you made it unilaterally for survival.

That is not true. In our last National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Nakuru, we agreed not to field a presidential candidate, but will allow members to support a candidate of their choice provided policies of CCM are included in the manifesto of those parties.

You saw CCM MPs – Geoffrey Tonkoyo (Narok West), Gideon Koskei (Chepalungu) and 22 ward representatives led by Bomet Minority Leader Andrew Maritim participate in the DP’s tour of Bomet. We made our position as a party known during the rallies in Silibwet and Ndanai.

For the record, I am on the same page with party chairman Mohamed Gulleid, treasurer Beatrice Asukul, organising secretary Joel ole Dapash and other national and branch officials.

Q. You have been a proponent of the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), but now find yourself in a team opposed to it. Has your position on the constitutional review changed?

Let me clear a few things that seem not to have been understood. BBI has its characteristics that should be separated from the Constitutional Bill published last year. I did not attend the BBI rallies where the organisers hurled abuses and used cantankerous talk.

I have been opposed to a pure presidential system of government. I support a hybrid one. We want resource allocation to counties increased to at least 35 per cent. As Council of Governors chairman, I came up with the Pesa Mashinani Bill, but had to go slow when my colleagues were threatened and harassed by the government.

I support changes that will improve the governing of the country, not BBI political ideologies pushed by some leaders. The Ruto team has also said there are some good proposals in the document.

Q. Kanu chairman Gideon Moi has been your political ally and friend. With the shifting alliances, where does that leave the two of you?

President Kenyatta, DP Ruto, Gideon and I are friends who have covered a lot of political ground together from 1997.

Moi has not declared his candidature for the presidency. Dr Ruto has made it clear he is in the race and that is the person Kenyans are rallying behind.

Even when we held different views, I worked closely with Mr Moi. That includes the run-up to the last General Election where in the tail end, Kanu ran away with Emurua Dikirr MP Johana Ng’eno who was CCM candidate. We rallied the people behind him and he won.

Q. What is your view on Mr Kenyatta’s recent talk of people from other communities taking the presidency from the Kalenjin and Kikuyu who have led the country since independence?

We voted for President Kenyatta not on the basis of his tribe, but because of his leadership qualities. We campaigned for Uhuru the politician, not because he is the son of a former president. His ethnicity did not count as we voted for him. Let us  listen to the presidential candidates and vet them on the basis of their policies and track record. Ethnicity is an accident of birth.

Q. Mr Kenyatta appears reluctant to support his deputy for the presidency, just like what President Moi did to Vice-President George Saitoti ahead of the 2002 General Election. Is it a case of history repeating itself?

 I cannot speak for President Kenyatta or Dr Ruto. I don’t know the genesis of their disagreement, if any, and would not be surprised to see them working together. A president does not own the government or the succession.

President Kenyatta said Dr Ruto was highly rated in 2012 and 2017. He may need to tell Kenyans when the rating fell.

But we must give the President a high rating for the tolerance he has demonstrated, as politicians hurl abuses at him.

Q. As a former National Super Alliance (Nasa) co-principal, do you see a situation in which you will work with ODM leader Raila Odinga, Wiper’ Kalonzo Musyoka, Musalia Mudavadi of ANC and Ford Kenya’s Moses Wetang’ula?

Kenyans do not seem to realise that we are all friends. We are former President Daniel Moi’s political babies and there are no personal differences. We greet and hug each other, share tables, ideas and eat together when we meet. These are people who have worked together for decades. Away from politics, our families have close ties.

Q. Leaders have of late accused President Kenyatta’s administration of burdening Kenyans with loans, which have no direct bearing on creating employment. Do you subscribe to the same view?

The current economic situation in the country has been acerbated by unnecessary borrowing. There has to be a Loans and Grants Council that would cap borrowings by the national and county governments and ensure shared prosperity between the current and future generations. There are economic and constitutional crises presided over by the Jubilee administration which can be corrected.

Q. Why is the economy performing badly yet it was better when President Kenyatta was the Finance Minister?

It is the presidential system of government that messed his policies. He was left alone up there with Cabinet Secretaries who are not leaders, but technocrats removed from the realities on the ground. Ministers should be elected Members of Parliament. The current cabinet secretaries should be principal secretaries.

Many big projects initiated by the government have turned into scandals. These include the standard gauge railway and the many dams. The cabinet secretaries are employees of the President who cannot correct the boss even when they see things going wrong.

Q. As the first chairman of the Council of Governors, what can you tell the national and county governments on how to handle striking health workers? The long strike has paralysed services in public hospitals when the country and the world are battling a pandemic?

Why is it that devolved governments cannot address the basic issues raised by health workers? Doctors, nurses, clinical officers and other cadre of workers are only asking for salary increment, Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and better working environment.

Governors are letting down the country by going to discuss health issues with Health Cabinet Secretary  Mutahi Kagwe yet the function is devolved.

The national government should only deal with standards and vaccinations.

Q. What is your rating of the state of devolution in the country?

Implementation of devolution has stagnated at 55 per cent in my view. The government has become top heavy by retaining money for devolved functions.

No one is talking of county staff pension, security of tenure of county employees. County Public Service Boards should have been declared national outfits so as to allow transfer of employees from one county to the other without affecting one’s pension and job grade.

Functions of the defunct Constitutional Implementation Commission (CIC) should have been taken over by the Law Reforms Commission (LRC). The Commission on Revenue Allocation (CRA) has not performed as well as when Micah Cheserem was in charge.